Twitter上市信息披露被指嫌贫爱富

    IPO期间分析师能做什么和不能做什么，这方面的规定充其量只能算是模棱两可。按照传统，IPO之后一个月左右，分析师才能着手研究本公司承销的股票。不过，只要不公开他们的研究结果，这些分析师就可以和投资者就IPO公司进行私下交流，而这些投资者通常都是这些券商的顶级客户。不过，这些分析师不能告诉后者他们最终会给IPO公司什么样的评级，或者对评级水平做出暗示。就某些IPO公司来说，透露收入预期也是违规行为。

    韦德布什证券公司（Wedbush Securities）负责研究社交媒体行业的分析师迈克尔•帕赫特说：“分析师不能利用自己做出的评级。” 帕赫特在Facebook上市前就开始研究这家公司。尽管韦德布什证券公司没有参加Twitter的承销工作，但他决定不对Twitter的收入情况作出预测。“别人可能觉得收入预期属于灰色地带数据，但我们公司认为它是禁区。”

    具有讽刺意味的是，虽然备受非议，但去年通过的《创业企业扶助法》（JOBS Act）有可能解决这个和研究IPO公司有关的问题。具体来说，这项法律允许分析师研究尚未首发上市的公司，甚至包括为承销商工作的分析师。这样就能消除信息方面的不对称情况，原因是如果将某家公司纳入研究范围，分析师就得向所有人公开他们的研究成果。也许就是出于这个原因，还没有哪家华尔街大公司利用过《创业企业扶助法》的这项规定。

    承销商WR Hambrecht正在倡导更为透明的IPO过程，该公司创始人比尔•昂布雷克特说：“在IPO过程中，华尔街公司垄断着相关信息，而且它们打算继续维持这样的局面。设置静默期很愚蠢。”

    对此我们无比赞同。

    译者：Charlie

    The rules around what analysts can and can't do during an IPO are murky at best. Traditionally, analysts at underwriting firms don't pick up coverage of a stock their bank is underwriting until a month or so after the IPO. Still, analysts are allowed to talk to investors, typically the firm's top-paying clients, privately about the deals, as long as they don't publish their research. However, they are not allowed to tell them how they will eventually rate a company's stock, or hint at what that rating will be. For some, revenue projections cross the line.

    "You are not allowed to front-run your own rating," says Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, who follows social media companies, and began covering Facebook before it went public. He has decided not to put out revenue projections on Twitter, though Wedbush is not one of Twitter's underwriters. "You might feel a revenue projection falls into the grey area, but my firm's opinion is it's off-limits."

    Ironically, the much maligned JOBS Act, which was passed last year, could solve the IPO research problem. The JOBS Act specifically allows analysts to pick up coverage of a company before it goes IPO, even if they work for one of the underwriters. That would remove the information divide, because once an analyst picks up coverage they have to publish their research for everyone to see. That could be why none of the big Wall Street firms have taken advantage of this provision in the JOBS Act.

    "The Wall Street firms have a monopoly on information in the IPO process, and they're trying to hold on to it," says Bill Hambrecht of WR Hambrecht, an underwriting firm pushing for a more open IPO process. "The quiet period is stupid."

    We couldn't agree more.